The 26-year-old pop star grew up on a council estate in Hereford, west England, and was so embarrassed by her accent that she trained herself to speak differently - but now she wishes she had retained her hometown dialect.

She said: ''I became fixated on speaking well. I felt like people just knew I was from a council house and that I was poor because of the way I spoke.''

Ellie, who describes her original accent as ''quite Bristolian'', began studying British TV newsreader Nicholas Witchell to perfect her new, sophisticated accent, which she now regrets.

She lamented: ''I feel silly because I'm not ashamed of the Hereford accent now and it's too late to get it back.''

Before finding fame as a musician, the 'Burn' hitmaker landed a publishing deal as a poet and was studying a drama course at a local university.

But she felt a pull towards music after playing her guitar for friends while they studied.

She said: ''[I] got my guitar out, sang to people, and it was the first time anyone ever said, 'My God, you really should do something with that.' ''

The positive feedback spurred Ellie to record demos and quit her university course with the blessing of her tutors, to whom she had played some of her music.

She enthused to the Observer newspaper: ''All of them told me to go for it.''